[t.a.]

Claire Falkenstein is appreciated worldwide for its innovative abstract-expressionist sculptures, made of welded metal and tinted glass. He began his artistic career in the thirties, creating abstract forms that reflected the scientific and philosophical ideas of the new century. Even before graduating in 1930 in Berkeley, had his first personal exhibition at the East-West Gallery in San Francisco. From 1930 to 1939 he created his first abstract sculptures, which were also among the first in the American art scene. During his teaching at the California School of Fine Arts shook relations of friendship with Clifford Still, and other abstract expressionists that much influenced his art. Moved to Paris in 1950 by establishing contact with Arp, Giacometti and Sam Francis. In 1958, on the occasion of an exhibition organized by Tapie in Rome at the Galleria Area, she was commissioned a staircase railing-that, made of colored glass and copper tubes welded, became the emblem of his style. In 1960 he created the gates of the Palace of Peggy Guggenheim in Venice that it called "The New Gates of Paradise.". After his return home in the 60s, after 12 years in Europe, created major public works in several American cities, including San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle.